Material handling vehicles such as fork lift trucks are commonly used in industrial and commercial facilities including manufacturing plants and warehouses to move objects from place to place within the facilities. The objects being moved must be carried on a pallet which fits the forks of a fork lift truck or must be otherwise supported or have a shape which fits or is adapted to fit the fork lift truck or other type of material handling vehicle. This, of course, limits the carrying capabilities of the material handling vehicle.
Additional limitations on the size and types of objects that may be carried by material handling vehicles relate to the space available in the industrial or commercial facility and the access provided in these facilities to the locations of the objects to be hauled. Where the objects are long, the overhead clearance may not be sufficient to carry them in an upright position or the material handling vehicle may not be capable of carrying the objects in an upright position. If the objects are either long or bulky, aisles within the facilities may be too narrow and aisle intersections may be too small to permit movement of the objects around corners. Also, the aisles may not be sufficiently high. These problems can be particularly difficult where the material handling vehicle is a fork truck type and the only secure manner of handling the object is to position it across the forks of the truck. If the object is fairly long, it will not fit through an aisle or door and raising the object in the air on the forks of the truck may make the entire apparatus unstable or there may not be sufficient overhead clearance to raise the object.
The instant invention is directed to providing an improved method and apparatus for solving problems of hauling long or bulky objects within industrial and commercial facilities.